The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1887-08-05
DEMOCRATIC AND ENRE
PUBLICAN.

UNDEMOCRATEC AND UNRE-
PUBLICAN.
Is a life-tenure in Office democrat
ic or republican? Is it III accord
with the genius Of free institutions
that set of men should 90 into Of
fee under examination as to quali>
fcation and then continue in office
for twenty, thirty, fo5ty or even
fifty years? Is an aristocracy Of of>
fee. holders a thing to be desired in
a free country? Must a law be ems
acted that shall deprive the people
of the right to change their own Of
icials? Shall the power of selection
for office be taken from the people
in that government that is Of the
people and by the people and for the
people?
This is precisely what Civil Ser
vice does and proposes to do. A
travelling Commission to select of>
dcers is substituted for the Will of
the people. In fact by the Civil
Service law the whole business of
regulating and selecting officials is
for ever taken from the people, and
is given to a rowing commission.
Let it not be forgotten that the
system proposed Is British-is alto
getlcr undemocratic. 1t destroys
the whole underlying principles Of a
representative Government. Public
opinion under our system is the
great corrective of abuses and
wrongs. But the British life tenure
utterly DESTROYS and denies all this.
The Louisville CotrierJourn0l states
this great principle in a very few
words, 1t says:
'Party is the agent for executing the
will of the people, and office is its vehicle.
The enforcement, then, of office and polls
tics means the abandonment ofrepresent-
atlve government.
That is the whole idea in nutshell,
and all the clamor about fitness Gnd mcr-
it-as if parties were not equally lnter>
ested in obtaining them-caHnnt maxi
out anything Of the Mugwump VIEW but
Il
ther from the people and nearer to the
plutocra cy, which is seeking to establish
an imperial oligarchism, under the name
of a republic, and on the ruins Of our
admirable system of National and State
federation, with its cOequal powers. and
just limitations resting directly on the
consent Of the gOyerned-that is the pub
lie opinion of the people readily ascer-
tanned at the poll"
The new-lan2led British system is
utterly and irretrievably uudemo-
cratic and observation-disclosures
ton Star.
Then my dearly beloved brother
in Democracy how can you support
an administration which says it is
pledged to and welded to this
atOminable and odious system and
is determined to fasten it on the
country if such a thing be possible,
even if it should cost the dismember-
meut and dissolution Of the party to
which You and l am so strongly at
tached and to whose principles we
have devoted the best years of eur
lives? We know you are honest and
sicnccre IN all You write ard say.
We know If you com-H.t al error 1t
IS an error of the head and not of
the heart, But we ask you in csndor
and all sincerity if it Is not wrong
morally and politically not to do all
in our power to defeat the man or
party who IS pledged to do, and is
doing ali that is possible to fasten
,.the new -fangled British system
which is utterly and irretrievably
undemOcratic and unrepublican"
upon the country? This IS our idea
of the matter we may be wrong,
YOU may be able, with your enlarg-
ed experience and accumulated wis
dom to shed some light upon our
as vet darkened understanding up
on this OdiOus damnab,e humbug,
viewed from our standpoint. We
believe in party discipline and
party obligations. We beiieve as a
r1le and under almost any clIcum-
stances we ought to stand to ou1